N. Korea offers swift report as olive branch to S. Korea

SEOUL, Aug. 17 (Yonhap) -- North Korean media swiftly delivered Monday the news
of the country's agreement with South Korea's Hyundai Group over joint ventures,
a conciliatory gesture in contrast to Pyongyang's customarily hostile propaganda.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and Hyundai Chairwoman Hyun Jeong-eun met Sunday
and reached an agreement to resuscitate stalled tourism projects and reunions of
families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War.
The official Korean Central News Agency carried a report on the joint statement,
signed by Hyundai and the Korea Asia-Pacific Peace Committee, a North Korean
organ overseeing inter-Korean exchanges, at around 4 a.m. The state-run Korean
Central Broadcasting Station reported on the joint statement over the radio at
7:20 a.m.
Kim "on August 16 granted a long audience to and had a cordial talk" with Hyun
and "complied with all her requests," their report said.
The country's main newspaper, the Rodong Sinmun, published by the ruling Workers'
Party, ran the story on the second page of its Monday edition, suggesting the
joint statement had been transferred to the paper for printing the previous
night.
Such swift and repeated reports reflect thawing inter-Korean relations. North
Korea had been issuing anti-Seoul propaganda since political relations rapidly
chilled after conservative President Lee Myung-bak took power last year.
hkim@yna.co.kr
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